Engineer's Perspective: Wyclef at Berklee

I don't know if I should make these a separate blog.  While I debate it I'll just post everything together. 

 

Although Berklee is THE school for popular music.  It rarely host artist who can be considered popular at this moment.  Most had hits in the eighties or are only known to a very small audience.  So when a real celebrity visits the school, the whole place is in a frenzy.  This Monday Wyclef Jean gave a clinic for the five week summer program, which was

 bursting at the seams with people.  

Now, clinics at Berklee generally fall into two categories: anecdotal, or academic.  Me being the geek that I am prefer more academic discussions about music and technique.  The anecdotal while entertaining do little to inspire me or teach me since every experience is different and you can't copy another musician's journey to success.  Wyclef deffinately fell into the anecdotal category, in fact he really turned his star power on for these kids.  Ordinarily I would scoff and say with all of his talent he had nothing substaintual to say. But, between the funny stories of growing up in Brooklyn, and meeting Michael Jackson, and Lauren Hill's craziness.  He actually dropped a few pearls for the students to take with them. Granted I may be reading too much into his words but what I walked away with was an uplifting speech aimed to inspire these young people to go out and make it happen for themselves.

So after performing a couple songs with a Berklee all-star band (Jetro De Silva, Terri Lyn Carrington, etc.) they opened the floor to questions.  The first dreaded question from the audience was of course "What kind of gear did you use?" I hate this question.  It completely misses the point of creating music. The gear isn't what makes a hit, it's the talent of the music maker.  Unfortunately this question wasn't answered to my liking, but the message was still delivered at other moments.  While discussing how he got into music he said that he listened to all styles of music.  He got into Miles and Monk because he liked the the "mood" of the music. As a musician you shouldn't discriminate against different types of music.  Music can only truly be classified as either good or bad.  Later when talking about working with Shakira he said " Don't try to make hits, try to make a cultural phenomenon" Easier said than done.  And while it's wasn't stated very clearly, I think the message is to aim for longevity, not for what's popular at the moment.  Good music is timeless.  All of these little tidbits  came between funny stories, or teasing the audience, gernerally a lot of goofing around.  Which was refreshing to witness in a celebrity and very entertaining for the students. 

 At one point a young man came up to ask a question.  I didn't hear a word of it but it took him about two minutes to get it out, at which point he was interrupted and chased by Wyclef.  After a laugh Wyclef turned around and asked him a simple but important question, one that anyone considering a career in recording music should be able to answer.  "What is a Producer?" He waited for the student to answer his question and the young man paused, tried, but couldn't really answer the question.  (Especially since he told him it had to be in ten words or less!)   It's a great question.  Whatever it is that you want to do it is important that you have a clear and concise idea of what your part in it is.  The answer Wyclef gave after letting the kid squirm for a bit was, the producer is the composer. Again not particularly eloquent or, profound. As he elaborated he said that it's not about providing one part of the song, it's having the artistic vision for the entire record. He ended the question and answer portion with some advice about the future of the music industry. Telling them that they need to make it happen for themselves. And to use the tools that are available to get their music out into the world. "The future of the industry is in the technology" and in that future it is possible for everyone to write their own version of success.  

He ended the clinic with one last stellar performance as his alter-ego Toussaint St. Jean.  Starting with a berklee freestyle then jamming his way through Guantanamera, then adding an encore of "Get up Stand Up".  By the time he was finished kids were dancing in the aisles, standing on chairs and having the time of there lives.  All Berklee clinics should have that kind of energy. (Oh and in case you're wondering, yes, he's playing the guitar with his teeth.)

Adventures in iTunes land Day 5

I need to start by first clarifying a statement made in my previous post.  My husband never said he doesn't like The Allman Brothers.  That particular conversation we were discussing Lynard Skynard and in general the superiority of Rock bands coming out of England compared to those from the U.S.  It's still an on going debate, though I have conceded many points to him.  For such a small country Britain has produced a large amount of excellent talent. And when you compare similar artists, the British artist is often technically superior.   However that doesn't apply to all (ahem, Spice Girls) nor does that mean that the American artist doesn't have equal talent and musicality. And I feel that all of the examples where the British artist is better are from at least twenty years ago.   You always hear Zepellin, or Pink Floyd, the Beatles. The more recent examples don't make for as convincing an argument.  

Ok, moving on to today's listening.

Primus Antipop (1999), Antipop indeed.  I only know Primus as the group that did the South Park theme song. That, and the uber-funky bass sound. My sole reason for adding this to my iPod is that I love that bass sound.  It seems silly right? I was never much of a engineer/production geek ( You know the "I wonder what kind of effect they put on his vocal to get that sound" types) but something about that slap bass is so funky it draws me in.   Their Wikipedia page described the music as Funk/Metal.  Which didn't become very evident until I got to Laquer Head, which I would definitely describe as metal. Admittedly I'm not digging this song too much. At least it's more interesting that most metal is, and it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, which makes listening fun. But, I would definitely need to be in a certain kind of mood to pull this out and listen to it, and probably not the album in it's entirety.  I keep checking to see how many songs are left to go, I feel like I've been listening to this for hours and there is still more to go.  It's like I said about Metal in a previous post.  It's fun, it grooves but ultimately it's boring.  I could turn it down and put it in the background, or maybe put it on at a party. It's lively, you can bob your head to it and it won't distract you from conversation. As far as listening to it for listening's sake... I doubt I would.  I did like the last track, the kind of twisted carnival vibe of "Coattails of a Dead Man" and "The Heckler" (hidden on the last track) were the most interesting things to listen to on the album.  Fortunately there is some Aretha to bring me back to the music. "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" is hands down my favorite Aretha cover and is probably topping the list of the most played songs in my iPod.  Kudos to Otis Redding for writing this awesome song but let's face it, he could never do the song justice, and in my opinion neither could the Rolling Stones.  This should be the only version of the song people talk about, but unfortunately I think it's little known. I only discovered this until late in my Berklee career. Now, I'm a big fan of Aretha, so I'm a bit biased, but even I will say that not all of her soulful covers are great(i.e. "Elenor Rigby") but when she's on she's really on. This song just has so much energy when she's singing it, I only wish I could have seen this performance live, it must have been remarkable.  

"I Want You To Want Me" - Cheap Trick, always fun.

Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison ( 1968) I'll admit to being a bit of a Johnny Cash poser.  I never considered myself a country fan which I'm sure my music collection shows, but I knew 

Cash to be something of an icon. High Fidelity got me curious about reading "Cash" by Johnny Cash, which according to Rob is the best book he's ever read, and I generally trust his opinion on all matters of pop culture.  Even after that glowing endorsement I never bothered to check out Johnny Cash until "Walk the Line" came out.  I realized then "Hey this is good music!" So when I saw my boss had this album I snatched it up.  To add to my poser-ness I usually only listened to the songs that I liked from the movie. (I know it's shameful) My thoughts after a full listen through? While I still don't consider myself a country music fan I can see why so many people are. With it's simple harmonic structure and pretty melodies and lyrics that are so expressive you feel them in your soul, country music has a way of touching people that other styles don't.  The lyrics are never very profound, but they manage to, in very few words to perfectly express a particular emotion, or story. Painting this vivid picture in our minds of what is happening in the song. "Inside the bars of prison my body may be, but the lord has set my soul free" is a beautiful line, and that was written by on of the inmates!  

Throughout the album  the theme of a fallen then redeemed man plays heavily, I'm guessing that was intentional given the audience.  But it's a compelling theme even for someone not physically behind bars.  A man can feel trapped in many ways besides physically.  And the songs tell this story so fluidly, with a  playful narattive that takes some of the bite out of the sad stories .  Granted,  some songs are better than others, but that is the case with any album. I recently sat in on a song writing class where singer/songwriter Melissa Ferrick was speaking.  She was asked by a student if she needed misery to write well; if that was the best inspiration for her songs.  She gave a resounding yes and then said it's ironic that some of the most joyous music is made by those who are the most miserable.  Suggesting maybe it was her white girl guilt that made her write songs of sadness and heartbreak.  What strikes me about this music is even though it is all about men down on their luck, miserable, lonely, or sick with love. The music is toe-tapping and the lyrics are whimsical.  The music, while being about misery, is an escape from it at the same time.  It's refreshing.

Avenue Q (2003)   I didn't think this would make the cut.  I know it's an award winning musical but come on... puppets?  Really?! But the few songs I have from the soundtrack are hilarious.  "Grab your dick and double click, the internet is for porn" is possibly the best lyric ever. Hilarious! I think I may need to make a trip to the library to get the whole album.  

Beyonce B'day(2006)  I'm discovering that I only like top forty singles.  All of the songs I didn't know from B'day fell short.  They would start with a nice catchy beat and then the vocals come in and ruin the nice set up.  I Love the sample at the beginning of suga mama,  then the rest  of the song is blah.  The one surprise was "Resentment".  I recognize the song they're sampling and it's driving me crazy that I can't remember it, but regardless, it is a nice old school sounding song and she is great on it.  I feel her strength is her live performances.  Whenever I hear her records I think "ehh" but when she's there with a live band performing it's always off the wall. That same energy is missing from the recordings.  I think the difference is the live band.  Call me old fashioned, but a machine can never replace or duplicate  the energy of a live player.  It's my main issue with most "R&B/ Hip Hop" music that's been coming out lately ( like the past 15 years!).  Beyonce is enough of a star to pull it off, most others aren't.  

I got to Back and Black, but I'm suffering from listening fatigue so I think I'd better stop. I'll post days six and seven shortly.  This post is really long so I'm going to try to listen a little everyday and keep the post shorter. Thanks for bearing with me as I figure this thing out.

Adventures in iTunes land Day 4

I know it's been a while since I last posted.  Life, as I knew it eventually would, has hindered my listening.  I'm going to attempt to add a playlist of my favorite songs of each week, but that is proving more difficult than I had originally anticipated.  

So far the best part of this is discovering music I've had but never listened to.  Going to a music school you learn to talk the talk.  You know which artist to mention to get a good conversation going, you know what is generally agreed on as good music. So you collect and collect and before you realize you have an iPod with something for everyone to enjoy but that I often never really appreciate myself.  Well no longer, today's listening begins with Neo-soul artist Anthony Hamilton who I discovered searching for an artist that used to play XM's The Flow which sadly got canceled.  All I knew was that the guy played acoustic guitar and I thought his name started with an "A".  I don't think Anthony Hamilton is the one I was looking for but it was a nice discovery none the less. 

The album, Ain't Nobody Worryin' is like a tribute to R&B music.  It was all over the place, but in a good way.  This is what I like about Neo-Soul music.  There's this reverence for the past while  managing to sound current and new.  Ain't Nobody Worryin had gospel elements ("Preacher's Daughter", "Pass Me Over"). Some songs reminded me of that  seventy's sound, you know with a string section, horns, percussion, dreamy vocals.  The first artist that came to mind (even though he doesn't really sound like him) was Curtis Mayfield.  I enjoy hearing the history in the music.  It is an example of a culmination of years of this music.  You can hear your old favorites singing through a new voice. And in doing that it keeps all of the music that came before relevant. By way of transition, Missy Elliot's  All in My Grill single was thrown in between a couple albums.  A fun little break from my critical listening.

After enjoying Achtung Baby so much I was surprised by U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000).  My first surprise was that I know this album. At least I know it better than some older U2 work.  Rather... I know the first two songs, but I never knew that "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" was a U2 song. See, I'm learning new things everyday with this project.  My impressions of this album are luke warm.  I am more familiar with it, but never really liked the songs I was familiar with. As I'm listening I'm trying to pay more attention to the lyrics since from what I've read that is one of great things about this band's music. And I want to give the music my full attention, which I never really do when I'm listening to the radio.  Frankly... it's difficult to understand what he's saying. I eventually gave up on trying to catch every word seeing as I can't enjoy the music if I have to think to hard. It started off strong and the singles are definitely the best on the album, but I  grew tired of the songs. This album lost me after Wild Honey.  After that I found the songs corny, the subject matters while socially conscious, did little to stir any passion, and I grew tired of the polished disco rock sound that dominated the albums production.  Rock should be gritty, nasty, passionate.  The music can be about anything  so long as it stirs my blood, this album fell very short of doing that.  

Thankfully the next album was The Allman Brothers Band (1969). That had more than enough grit to compensate for U2's lacking. You've got to love that blues shuffle! Here again is another example of that uniquely American sound, I'll take it one further and say it's distinctly southern.  I don't understand how my husband can not like this music, it feels so good.  I remember watching a documentary about Tom Dowd where he spoke about his experience with the Allman brothers and how after hearing them he felt that as a producer all he had to do was let them play. Which in my experience is a very rare thing for a producer to say.  And if you think about it, it's a very unconventional band ( can't think of many popular bands with two drummers), which makes it even more impressive that the producer took a hands off approach to the music. It's a great testament to the quality of the music they were making.  I know they're known for being something of a jam band, but that's not what I'm getting from this album, which perhaps makes it more accessible for me. No, it's not just that it's mostly blues rock, it's more that the music is really good. And good music is always easy to listen to.  The two guitar lines in harmony is catchy even if what they're playing isn't. My biggest complaint about jam band music is typically  it seems to go on forever, and it's really boring. It's the same problem I have with Metal, and some Hip hop.  There's always a lot going on, so much so that you end up not listening to anything.  The ears need something to focus on, they need to be guided trough the music. This band does that artfully.  I can only imagine what it must have been like to experience them live. And "Whipping Post", wow!  I think that just became the song of the summer!

The Allman Brothers  would have been a nice note to end on for the day, but there are still hours left at work for listening. Next up in the queue is Amos Lee and Smokey Robinson's Anthology. Amos Lee is a nice low key R&B album, this is the kind of album you put on to relax.   Surprisingly it sounds a lot like the music I hear at Berklee. Musician's music,  a fusion of jazz, blues, and funk.  Fun music to play and fun music to listen to. Smokey on the other hand surprised me.  I am a huge Motown fan.  I love the music and it's from my home town which makes it all the more special for me.  But as I'm listening I can't tell on song from the next, nothing is really jumping out or  catching my ear.  There are the obvious songs which I've known for years, but then there was about an hours worth of music which wasn't really worth the time I'd dedicated to it.  I can say this about Smokey, he was prolific. Even with all of the fond memories of my childhood and all of my home town love,  I think I may have found the first album to get the axe. I'm sad to say it, but I know I'll probably never listen to most of these songs again.  I guess some music doesn't stand the test of time, even when it's Motown. Fortunately the day ended on a high note with Aretha Franklin's version of "The Weight" one of my favorite covers by her.  Tomorrow is another slow day so I'll hopefully finish up this first week of listening. Until then...

Adventures in iTunes land Days 2&3

I'm suddenly realizing how little time I actually have to listen to music. I hate imposing my song choice on my office mates so I couldn't really listen at work yesterday. Fortunately I have the office to myself today and lots of time to kill. This second listening installment included the rest of Acoustic Soul (India.Arie), Add it Up ( Violent Femmes), Adoration live in concert (Richard Smallwood), Aerosmith (Areosmith), and Aftermath [US] (The Rolling Stones),

The first three albums I was already very familiar with. Add It Up is my go to road trip album, and the Richard Smallwood I listen to when ever I need uplifting. It had been years since I listened to the entire Acoustic Soul album. And like with Aaliyah I understood why. The more I listen to my R&B albums the better I understand why it has such a smaller audience than Pop or Rock. It always puzzled me that a style of music that I enjoyed so much wasn't well known among the other students at Berklee. I think I get it now... it's boring music. Don't get me wrong I still love it but listening to it, really listening to it, I had a hard time resisting the urge to skip to the songs on the album I like. India.Aire in particular started to grate on me. Oddly enough her songwriting reminded me a lot of my own music, but it reminded of the things I don't like about my music. The lyrics seemed divorced from the music, fitting awkwardly into the songs melody and meter. The interludes/dedications were especially awkward, and she loves, LOVES using cliches. I'd like to think that you can use cliches as a clever lyrical device, but in all honesty it merely sounds (for lack of a better word) cliched. Thankfully it ended on a high note with "Wonderful". That is the kind of up beat R&B that I like. Everything grooves, sitting nicely with all the other elements. You can't help but bob your head and sing along. So props to her for starting strong and ending strong, even if the middle was a little weak.

My new discoveries today are Areosmith (1973 ), their first album, and Aftermath (1966) by the Rolling Stones. I love Aerosmith, at least I loved this album. It's fun to listen to, bluesy, souful, a sound that I think is uniquely American. Especially compared to Aftermath in which I heard more of a folk influence. Aerosmith also reminds me of Boston. It is the perfect bar music, and while Boston isn't much for flashy night clubs, it is definitely a drink and listen to music kind of town. This album would be the perfect backdrop to one of those evenings. As I listen I'm beginning to think that I'm an old soul when it comes to Rock. I like how raw it sounds. Everything you hear today is so polished it's sterile. There's no bite to it. This stuff on the other hand is messy, and there's a freedom and passion expressed in it that is intoxicating, it sucks you in. Or maybe I am just responding to the similarities between this music and the Blues and R&B that I'm so familiar with. My previous knowledge of the Rolling Stones is as a cover band essentially. The only songs I knew by them were covers of R&B tunes, which I believe they are greatly influenced by. It's a little grittier, but at the heart of it is good old rythym and blues, which is just fine by me.
All in all today and yesterday were great listening days. We'll see how many more of those there are by the end of this.

Adventures in iTunes Land Day1

Day one of my little project was a little rocky. I remembered my iPod today, which is good.  Unfortunately my peaceful (not) work environment wasn't conducive to music listening today.  I soldiered on any way.  I followed my friends advice and am listening by album.  I figure that way I'm keeping the artist vision complete while still giving myself some variety in listening. First up Aaliyah's Aaliyah ( albums are alphabetical in case you hadn't guessed).  A seemingly strong start, up beat, catchy songs that I am familiar with, but after about four songs I realized why I hadn't listened to this album in six years.  Primarily produced by Timbaland, the over all sound of the album got old really quick.  And while some of the songs ("We need a Resolution, More Than a Woman, Rock the Boat) still got my feet tapping and me singing along, the rest sounded dated.  It reminded me of that summer when "Sexy Back" was released. Timbaland had produced a few other songs that same summer that were hits but none of them kept my interest like JT's song did. That song was great, the rest just seemed to try to recreate that same sound and didn't cut it.  I will say this about Aaliyah, it did take me back. "Rock the boat" reminds me of this awful church I went to when I first started studying in Boston.  I had a few friends who played in the band and whenever they had an opportunity to, at some point in the  service they would play that song.  It was the only redeeming part of the service. The rest was like watching bread go stale.  

After Aaliyah my listening went a little awry.  The next album on the list was the never listened to before Achtung Baby by U2. Before my husband, I never listened to U2, I'd never listened to a lot of things which I'm sure this experiment will illustrate.  I think I'm a fan, I enjoy the songs I know, which I guess is a start. So again my first day of listening could have been a lot worse than it was turning out to be.  At first listen, I thought it was Prince, that first song "Zoo Station" definitely didn't sound like the U2 I know.  Not that I know them all that well, but that's beside the point.  Though as I listened The Edge's guitar sound made it's presence known.  To my surprise I knew one of the songs from the album ("Mysterious Ways") and my favorite off the album was hands down is "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses".  It was around this point that my co-workers started hinting for a change in music.  The disadvantage of not having it on shuffle is that if you don't like the artist you still have to sit through the whole album.  So about two songs into Acoustic Soul (India.Arie) someone started blasting Alice in Chains.  I figured that would be a good time to stop.  Tomorrow I'll bring headphones so I can listen without distraction. Until then...

Much Love

* Little factoid: Achtung means attention or warning in German. 

Adventures in iTunes land

This is my first post to my first blog.  I ordinarily write about my work and review shows that I see around school.  Unfortunately things are really slow at work so instead I'll take the opportunity to conduct a little experiment I've been thinking about doing for a while.  I am  embarrassed to admit (but I'm sure I'm not alone) that I have no idea what half of the music in my iPod is.  I typically put it on shuffle and skip through a majority of the songs it picks.  I've been debating whether I should just start deleting the songs I never listen to from my library.  But, before I start purging, and in the interest of learning something new about music and myself, I want to really sit down and give all of my music a good listening to. According to iTunes I have about eight days worth of music. So I'm figuring it will take a couple months to go through it all.  

Before I begin there are a few decisions to be made.  The first is whether I should listen to my iTunes library, or my iPod; the second is how I want to go through the songs.  I'll go with the ipod, because of the two that is the more complete collection of music.  The only remaining question is whether to organize my listening by artist/ album, or to simply put it on shuffle or song for a more random listening experience.  It was pointed out to me that a good album should be listened to as one unit.  The key word in that statement being "good", and I can't say how many of the albums I have could be considered good. I doubt any of them are even complete!  At the moment I'm leaning towards shuffle just so I'll have some variety to my listening.  Well, since I forgot my iPod today, I'll sleep on it and see what I feel like tomorrow.  Oh, and if you're wondering about the picture, it's the cake from the baby shower my co-worker's threw for me.  How awesome is that?!